There has been provided an electronic still camera that records on a recording medium a result of imaging in the form of so-called RAW data. The term “RAW data” refers to image data obtained as a result of imaging from an image pickup element and is yet to be subjected to a series of image correction processings that are necessary when presenting the imaging result, such as gamma correction processing, auto white-balance adjustment processing, hue correction processing corresponding to imaging mode, and frequency characteristic correction processing. The imaging mode corresponds to a mode for correcting an image based on a scene imaged, for instance, portrait and landscape.
Regarding to such an electronic still camera related to RAM data, there has been proposed, for instance in JP-A-6-90435 and JP-A-2003-346143, a method according to which when an imaging result recorded on a recording medium is processed by a computer, a thumbnail image is generated by thinning RAW data recorded on a recording medium, and this thumbnail image is presented as the imaging result. According to this method, a processing of preview is implemented by use of the thumbnail image, thereby reducing time taken for the user to view a result of an edit, and enhancing the user-friendliness.
There is known a type of electronic still camera that records on a recording medium an imaging result that has been subjected to an image adjustment processing. Such a type of electronic still camera generates an index thumbnail image by thinning adjusted image data, which is the image data having been subjected to the image adjustment processing, and records the index thumbnail image along with the imaging result having been subjected to the image adjustment processing, on the recording medium and in a file format such as EXIF (Exchangeable Image file Format). The electronic still camera of this type can easily present in the form of a list, imaging results recorded on a recording medium, by using the index thumbnail images recorded along with the imaging results.
The method disclosed in JP-A-6-90435 and others takes a long time to generate the thumbnail images, and accordingly takes a long time to present, in the form of the list of the thumbnail images, the imaging results recorded on the recording medium. Hence, this method is disadvantageously user-unfriendly.